Strathaven Prays 24/7 - 8th - 15th November 2009
LAST year’s prayer event in Strathaven was welcomed by all the churches as a hugely inspirational and encouraging time. If you were part of it you will remember the sense of peace and unity in the flat in Common Green and you will know exactly what what you’ll be in for when you join in again this year. If you weren’t then you’ll find something here to explain.
The aim is to have a central place for prayer in the heart of Strathaven, active continuously for a full week, (that’s 168 consecutive hours). It is a place for Christians who are in the town to come and pray for a while, but we organise it so that someone will always be there there. The prayer chain is unbroken.
In the prayer room there are different ways of praying. Some came to the flat and prayed alone, quietly in the room of reflection, others joined with friends or in small groups, in an area set aside for this, to pray together. Some prayed expressing their prayers in a written form, others as an art piece. We had areas in the flat to think specifically about the needs of our town and community, the world, mission, the needy.
What’s expected of me?
It can seem daunting but this is a time for you to spend with God in prayer in whatever way you find most helpful and most comfortable. You are asked to sign up for a one hour slot. You come to the prayer room, and you find a space and a place there to pray. You may look at the displays, read something someone else has written or left for others to think about. You might read some of the Bible and use that as words as you talk to God.
What is NOT expected of you is that you organise a time of prayer or that you must pray with others. You may wish to do that - and that’s great, but this is for your time with God.
There is a central organising group responsible for the running of the prayer room. They make sure that the place is ‘manned’, that any materials are available, that the next person in the chain knows to turn up and so on.
Although you sign up for an hour slot you are not restricted to that - in fact one of the best things about last year was the fact that people came back at times they had not intended to be there. And so it is likely that you may find other people in the prayer room at the time you have committed to be there. We expect that here will usually be two people in the rooms
But I’ve never prayed for an hour!
What if someone told you that praying for an hour would not only be easy, but at the end of an hour, you would say I could pray longer and ………I enjoyed it! So many said that last year, and having signed up for one hour came back for more. Have you never prayed for an hour? This is your chance to try it!
Our Strathaven 24/7 prayer room is part of an International Initiative to keep prayer going. For over 11 years now prayer rooms like the one we ran last year have been going on all over the world, handing the prayer baton on to the next room. And in our room the baton is handed on each hour over the 168 hours of the week.
At this very moment about 72 different groups of churches worldwide are praying this week in 24/7 prayer rooms they have set up in their community. Our week is the 8 - 15th November and we’ll be taking over from (among others) 24/7 Greensboro in the USA and handing over (among others) to Coventry Elim Pentecostal Church (UK)
THE DATE IS SET - 8th -15th November 2009
THE TIMES ARE AVAILABLE - 168 x 1 hour slots
THE LOCATION IS CONFIRMED -- 72 Kirk Street Strathaven (Avendale Church Manse)
In the meantime will you sign up for a slot?
Each church is being asked to try and fill specific hours but a master sheet is kept to make sure that all the hours are covered. However, if you can only make it at a time that is technically ‘another churches’ don’t hold back - sign up for that in any case.
Seek out the Sign Up Sheet in your church.
ASK FOR PRAYER -
If you wish people to pray confidentially for you - there will be prayer point boxes and a prayer post box in the Common Green during the week.
In addition you may email prayer requests to hope4strathaven@live.co.uk - Please respect confidentiality in any requests.
